CBI arrests media channel India Ahead’s Arvind Kumar Singh, says transferred crores by means of Hawala to company coping with AAP’s Goa election publicity
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On Monday, May 15, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) acknowledged that Arvind Kumar Singh, the enterprise head and manufacturing controller of Noida-based India Ahead data channel in reference to the Delhi excise protection rip-off on Friday. Following his arrest on the similar day, Special CBI Judge M. Okay. Nagpal of Rouse Avenue Court remanded Singh to CBI custody till May 18.
According to a CBI official, “Arvind Kumar Singh was arrested on Friday for allegedly transferring Rs 17 crore over hawala networks to a firm, which was handling the Aam Aadmi Party’s publicity campaign during the Goa assembly elections.”
During the investigation, the CBI recovered WhatsApp chats and hawala operator information indicating that Singh had been involved inside the hawala transactions of Rs 17 crore between June 2021 and January 2022 to a company managing the AAP’s outside industrial advertising and marketing marketing campaign in Goa.
While remanding Arvind Kumar Singh to CBI custody, Justice Nagpal acknowledged, “This court is of the opinion that some further interrogation in custody from the accused is required, as is his confrontation with the other documentary as well as digital evidence that has come on record during the investigation of the case. Therefore, he has been remanded to the custody of the CBI until May 18.”
The Goa Assembly elections befell on February 14, 2022. The Delhi authorities’s excise protection for 2021-22, which meant to grant licenses to liquor retailers, is claimed to have benefited explicit sellers who allegedly paid kickbacks for it. The protection was later scrapped.
Notably, Bhupendra Chaubey, the editor-in-chief of India Ahead is married to Delhi Education Minister Atishi’s elder sister Rosa Basanti. In 2022, it was reported that India Ahead was confronted with a financial crunch and rumours surfaced that the English free-to-air channel might shut down shortly. In January this 12 months, the data channel reportedly shut down its operations and the dues of the employees had been unpaid. Chaubey had on the time refuted these tales.
